Lady Gaga Sells 1.1M In First Week

The first week of sales for Lady Gaga's Born This Way are the highest for any release in the last six years.

Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" album debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 1,108,000 copies sold in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's only the 17th album to sell a million in a week since SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991, and the highest sales week since 2005. "Born This Way" also marks Gaga's first No. 1 album -- "The Fame" debut peaked at No. 2, while "The Fame Monster" EP reached No. 5 and dance effort "The Remix" hit No. 6. "Born This Way's" bow reaps the largest sales week of any album since 50 Cent's "The Massacre" did 1,141,000 in its first week, in March of 2005. The last time we had a million-plus frame was when Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" premiered at No. 1 with 1,047,000 in November of 2010. The SoundScan-era record week is held by NSYNC's "No Strings Attached," when it debuted at No. 1 with 2,416,000 in 2000.

Amazon Sells Gaga For 99 Cents

In a smackdown squarely aimed at iTunes, today Amazon began selling Lady Gaga's new full-length album for a mere 99 cents. The release is priced at $11.99 on iTunes. Amazon's sale is for today only.

Will The Music Press Yawn About Tyler, Another Viciously Homophobic Rapper?

Rising rap star, music press darling, and Coachella 2011 "breakout artist" Tyler was the subject of a lengthy and fawning New York Times profile published last week. His new album, Goblin, debuts today.

“Goblin” is spiteful, internal, confident, vitriolic, vividly bruised stuff, a shocking — and shockingly good — album that bears little resemblance to contemporary hip-hop. It has more in common with the stark, thick-with-feelings independent rap of the mid-to-late-1990s and also the improbably rich-sounding minimalism of the Neptunes in the early 2000s. For every caustic rhyme about violence there’s a pensive, unexpectedly gentle production choice to go with it. Unlike the maximalism of hip-hop radio, you can feel the air in these songs, the gasping for breath.

But what the Times misses is that their new hero is viciously anti-gay and litters his multiple daily Twitter updates with references to "faggots" and "homos."
Another recent Tyler tweet: "Just walked into Abercrombie with my sister cause she wants a shirt. It smells like faggot in here." We'll have to see if the music press and promotion machine cares about this at all. Goblin is pegged to debut at or near the top of next week's album chart.

(Tipped by JMG reader Roman)

Target Responds To Dropped Gaga Deal

"We were very surprised and disappointed by the statements made by Lady Gaga's organization related to her partnership with Target. Target remains committed to the LGBT community as demonstrated by our contributions to various LGBT organizations, our recently established Policy Committee to review our political giving and our respectful, inclusive workplace environment." - Target spokesperson.

Russell Simmons For New York Marriage

Sony Kills The Walkman

After 30 years and 200 million units, Sony has announced the end of its iconic cassette Walkman. In other news, Sony was still making the Walkman. The Sony Discman, inexplicably, continues to live. I remember thinking the Walkman was overpriced and always getting cheapo knockoffs which would fall apart within a few months. I finally caved when that super-fly bright yellow "sport" Walkman came out.

Afternoon View - Dead Virgin

Afternoon View - Medium Rare Records

I'd been told that the Castro's Medium Rare Records would be closing soon and today I noticed a "for lease" sign above their front door. Sad, but not surprising. Almost all of the nation's small record stores that catered to a gay clientele have closed in the last few years.

Google To Compete With iTunes

Google is set to launch a music service expected to compete with industry pioneer iTunes.

Google is in talks with music labels on plans for a download store and a digital song locker that would allow its mobile users to play songs wherever they are as it steps up its rivalry with Apple, according to people familiar with the matter. Google’s Andy Rubin, the brains behind Google’s Android mobile operating system, has been leading conversations with the labels about what a new Google music service would look like, according to these sources. Rubin, Google’s vice president of engineering, hopes to have the service up and running by Christmas, two of these people said.

Earlier this year Apple bough the popular cloud-based music company LaLa and promptly shut it down, leading many to speculate that the next version of iTunes would be cloud-based. That was not the case.

Michael Jackson's Billion Dollar Year

Michael Jackson died a year ago today, but his empire rolls on.

In the final years of his life, Jackson's finances were widely reported to be in chaos, with the singer facing foreclosure on his famed Neverland Ranch and struggling with debts of roughly $US500 million. However in the 12 months since Jackson's death on June 25 last year, the King of Pop's empire has witnessed a money-spinning resurgence, generating revenues estimated at more than $US1 billion. Jackson's estate has paid off more than half of the singer's debts and is likely to put his affairs back into the black in the coming year. The financial bonanza began almost immediately, with Jackson selling nearly 4 million records in the six weeks after his death. By June 2010, total album sales had swollen to 9 million in the United States alone, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan. Internationally, Jackson has sold 24 million albums.

Jackson's This Is It has grossed more than $300M worldwide, making it the most successful concert movie in history. Even though there was no audience at those concerts.

Chely Wright Talks Gay With Oprah

On Wednesday newly out country music singer Chely Wright told Oprah that only two of her industry colleagues have reached out to her since her revelation. "And they all have my email." She also expressed shame for having once told a young gay friend to "get his sin out of my face." Wright said she had to come out because "young people in America are being told by their churches that they are damaged goods." In the bottom clip below, Wright tears up in regret over "having wronged" country star Brad Paisley by dating him.

Apple Kills Music-Streamer Lala.com

Just a few months after Apple bought Lala, my favorite streaming music service, they are closing it down. They bought it to kill it.

Apple will shut down its Lala online music streaming service on May 31. The move comes just five months after Apple bought Lala for an undisclosed price. Could this indicate Apple is serious about opening up a Web-based version of iTunes software-based storefront based on the Lala platform? Some speculate Apple may announce a Web-based version of iTunes this June at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple has never said why it bought the company or what it planned to do with the service, but the purchase has prompted wide speculation that Apple is planning to introduce a cloud-based version of iTunes.

I listened to more music on Lala than anywhere else. Boo.

TRAILER: I Need That Record

Here's the trailer for the upcoming DVD release of the documentary about the demise of music retail, I Need That Record.

Featuring discussion and commentary by THURSTON MOORE of Sonic Youth, IAN MACKAYE of Dischord Records Fugazi/Minor Threat, activist/author NOAM CHOMSKY, MIKE WATT of the Minutemen, LENNY KAYEguitarist of the Patti Smith Group, CHRIS FRANTZ of the Talking Heads/Tom Tom Club, guitar composer GLENN BRANCA, PATTERSON HOOD of Drive-By Truckers, PAT CARNEY of the Black Keys, punk author LEGS MCNEIL, rock photographer BOB GRUEN, BP HELIUM guitarist from Of Montreal, and many indie record stores across the United States.

Music retail, what little remains anyway, has largely been returned to the place where it was born, in the corner of department stores that sell machines to play it.